Com­puter sci­ence, IT top choices for en­gi­neer­ing as­pi­rants in Delhi

SIM­PLI­FIED Com­mon coun­selling in four prom­i­nent Delhi en­gi­neer­ing in­sti­tu­tions is prov­ing to be a boon for ap­pli­cants as they can now opt for their pre­ferred spe­cial­i­sa­tion in one go

Com­puter sci­ence, in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy and elec­tron­ics and com­mu­ni­ca­tion en­gi­neer­ing are the most pop­u­lar choices this year for en­gi­neer­ing as­pi­rants in Delhi.

This has been re­flected in the trends emerg­ing after two rounds of com­mon coun­selling at four prom­i­nent en­gi­neer­ing in­sti­tu­tions in the Cap­i­tal – Delhi Tech­no­log­i­cal Uni­ver­sity (DTU), In­draprastha In­sti­tute of In­for ma­tion Tech­nol­ogy ( IIIT Delhi), Indira Gandhi Delhi Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity for Women (IGDTUW) and Ne­taji Sub­has In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy (NSIT).

In June 2014, for the first time ever, admissions to the BTech pro­gramme were con­ducted through a com­mon coun­selling process in three of these in­sti­tu­tions. Re­cently NSIT also joined the process.

The com­mon coun­selling is on the lines of the se­lec­tion process for ad­mis­sion to the In­dian In­sti­tutes of Tech­nol­ogy and the Na­tional In­sti­tutes of Tech­nol­ogy. Dur­ing coun­selling, the choices sub­mit­ted by can­di­dates are pro­cessed cen­trally and seats al­lot­ted in the or­der of merit on the ba­sis of the locked choices.

Ac­cord­ing t o Pro­fes­sor Rakesh Ku­mar Singh, mem­ber, joint admissions com­mit­tee for these in­sti­tu­tions, “Since 2014, the ad­mis­sion to BE/ BTech pro­gramme is be­ing con­ducted through joint ad­mis­sion coun- selling. Stu­dents are re­quired to fill the com­mon ap­pli­ca­tion form for ad­mis­sion to the four pre­mier en­gi­neer­ing uni­ver­si­ties/in­sti­tu­tions of the Delhi gover nment. The rank l i st for all the four is gen­er­ated to­gether.” UNIQUE AS­PECTS OF 2016 COM­MON COUN­SELLING “The ad­mis­sion to the BAr­chi­tec­ture pro­gramme at IGDTUW was of­fered in off­line mode in 2015. This year, it has been in­te­grated in the joint ad­mis­sion coun­selling (JAC) por­tal. The num­ber of cour­ses and the num­ber of seats have been in­creased in the var­i­ous par­tic­i­pat­ing uni­ver­si­ties/ in­sti­tutes. DTU has in­creased 250 seats in var­i­ous cour­ses, IGDTUW has in­creased 60 seats in com­puter sci­ence en­gi­neer­ing and IIITD has also in­creased 70 seats. The to­tal num­ber of seats of­fered by four par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tions in 2016 is 3,328, which was 2,928 in 2015 in BE/BTech pro­grammes. The num­ber of seats for BArch in IGDTUW re­mains 40 in the 2016 coun­selling. Com­puter sci­ence en­gi­neer­ing is the first pref­er­ence of the stu­dents fol­lowed by IT based on the round 1 cut­off. The BArch pro­gramme of the IGDTUW has also gained pop­u­lar­ity with high cut-off in round 1,” says Pro­fes­sor Singh.

The to­tal num­ber of regis­tra­tions of stu­dents seek­ing ad­mis­sion in the un­der­grad­u­ate cour­ses is also in­creas­ing. “An­other ad­van­tage is that due to com­mon coun­selling, the to­tal du­ra­tion of ad­mis­sion process has re­duced. This time the coun­selling process is com­plet­ing on July 31, 2016, and the ses­sion will start with full strength of the stu­dents from Au­gust 1, 2016,” he says.

Manoj Ku­mar, vice chair­man, BTech admissions, DTU, says, “This t i me, DTU has in­creased seats in com­puter en­gi­neer­ing from 140 to 360 and in in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy from 90 to 120. But the most pop­u­lar branch is still com­puter en­gi­neer­ing. For out­side Delhi can­di­dates, com­puter en­gi­neer­ing and me­chan­i­cal en­gi­neer­ing are pop­u­lar. Our branch, math­e­mat­ics and com­put­ing started in 2012 is also gain­ing pop­u­lar­ity be­cause of its cur­ricu­lum de­sign and good place­ments.” BOON FOR AP­PLI­CANTS The com­mon coun­selling process, says Pro­fes­sor Singh, has helped the stu­dents im­mensely as a com­mon ap­pli­ca­tion form is re­quired to be filled for the four in­sti­tu­tions and the ad­mis­sion process is also con­ducted jointly. “After the im­ple­men­ta­tion of com­mon coun­selling, prospec­tive can­di­dates now don’t have to de­posit the fee sep­a­rately in the par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tion while wait­ing for the branch of their choice. The ver­i­fi­ca­tion of doc­u­ments is also done once, and if the can­di­date is up­graded to an­other par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tion, he/ she is not re­quired to go for doc­u­ment ver­i­fi­ca­tion again. With the cen­tralised merit list, the ad­mis­sion process has been made smoother. The can­di­date is re­quired to re­port to the fi­nal al­lo­cated in­sti­tute at the end of the coun­selling process,” he says. Says Ku­mar, “Ear­lier, each in­sti­tute was con­duct­ing its own coun­selling and the stu­dents were ap­ply­ing sep­a­rately, pay­ing ₹ 1,000 to ₹ 1,200 i n each and block­ing seats in mul­ti­ple in­sti­tutes. They ended up spend­ing thou­sands of ru­pees. Now, with com­mon coun­selling, a can­di­date gets his best choice and pays fee only once.”

With the ad­vent of JAC for four par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tutes, each can­di­date is al­lot­ted only one seat. Ear­lier, can­di­dates used to block var­i­ous seats in dif f er­ent in­sti­tu­tions in Delhi. In­ter­est­ingly, no seat has re­mained va­cant dur­ing coun­selling through JAC in 2014 and 2015. The third round of com­mon coun­selling will be con­ducted on July 15, 2016. Ad­mis­sion to the par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tion will be based on the All In­dia Rank pre­pared by CBSE giv­ing 40% weigh­tage (suit­ably nor­malised) to Class 12 ( or equiv­a­lent other qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­i­na­tion) marks and 60% to the per­for­mance in Pa­per-1 of JEE (Main) 2016. For ad­mis­sion to BArch, Pa­per-2 of JEE (Main) 2016 will be con­sid­ered. For IIITD, there are bonus marks.

For ad­mis­sion t o Ne­taji Sub­has In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy, Indira Gandhi Delhi Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity for Women and Delhi Tech­no­log­i­cal Uni­ver­sity, no sep­a­rate merit list is pre­pared. The pro­vi­sional seat al­lot­ment will be based solely on the all- In­dia Rank ( AIR) of the can­di­date in the JEE (Main) 2016 exam as given by the Cen­tral Board of Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion.

No fresh regis­tra­tions will be al­lowed in the third round. An el­i­gi­ble can­di­date needs to know which spe­cial­i­sa­tion has been al­lot­ted to him and whether his seat has been up­graded in this round. If a can­di­date has al­ready used his op­tion of se­cur­ing an al­lot­ted seat in the first round, he will not be con­sid­ered for the third round of coun­selling.

All reg­is­tered can­di­dates who were not al­lot­ted any seats in the first round of seat al­lot­ment are el­i­gi­ble for the third round of coun­selling. Upto10 bonus marks will be given to can­di­dates , if they have been se­lected for the sum­mer train­ing camp for se­lec­tion of the fi­nal team for an in­ter­na­tional olympiad.

A can­di­date who has se­cured 80% or more marks i n t he ag­gre­gate of best of five sub­jects in­clud­ing physics, chem­istry and math­e­mat­ics and 80% or more in math­e­mat­ics in the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­i­na­tion is el­i­gi­ble for the BTech course at IIIT-Delhi. Ex­plain­ing the process of how com­mon coun­selling works to screen can­di­dates for ad­mis­sion to en­gi­neer­ing col­leges in Delhi, Pro­fes­sor Rakesh Ku­mar Singh, mem­ber, Joint Admissions Com­mit­tee for these in­sti­tu­tions, says, “First, JEE (Main) ranks are de­clared by the Cen­tral Board of Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion. Next, regis­tra­tions open f or a spe­cific pe­riod through which a can­di­date submits his/her per­sonal and aca­demic de­tails, and pref­er­ences among in­sti­tu­tions and branches. This is fol­lowed by lock­ing of choices/pref­er­ences. Later, doc­u­ments for sub-cat­e­gories are ver­i­fied and seats are al­lo­cated through a soft­ware de­vel­oped by Na­tional In­for­mat­ics Cen­tre as per can­di­dates’ choices and avail­abil­ity of seats. Can­di­dates then have to re­port to the al­lot­ted in­sti­tute and ad­mis­sion let­ters are is­sued.”

This sys­tem also helps deal with com­plex­i­ties in terms of data. Manoj Ku­mar, vice chair­man, BTech admissions, DTU, says, “The seat al­lot­ment sys- tem is very com­plex as merit or­der is dif­fer­ent for the BArch pro­gramme at IGDTUW. Also, the al­lot­ment sys­tem for IIITD is based on JEE (Main) marks only and not JEE (Main) rank. For other in­sti­tu­tions, it is based on JEE (Main) rank. It also deals with is­sues such as dif­fer­ent in­sti­tu­tions hav­ing dif­fer­ent el­i­gi­bil­ity cri­te­ria like minimum per­cent­age for dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories and minimum age limit.”

So, how is it dif­fer­ent from the com­mon coun­selling for IITs? The com­mon coun­selling for IITs is done through JEE (Ad­vanced) rank, whereas the com­mon coun­selling for JAC is done through JEE (Main) rank.

In the JAC, 85% seats are re­served for can­di­dates pass­ing their Class 12 ex­ams from Delhi and 15% seats are al­lo­cated to stu­dents out­side Delhi.

The IITs fol­low the reser­va­tions poli­cies of the Cen­tre whereas the JAC fol­lows the reser­va­tion pol­icy of the Delhi gov­ern­ment. The JAC par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tions are at­tract­ing can­di­dates with very high ranks of JEE (Main). “This time, the ad­mis­sion in IITs is be­ing done through JoSAA in six rounds of coun­selling whereas JAC is com­plet­ing its coun­selling in three rounds fol­lowed by spot round from July 29 to 31, 2016,” adds Pro­fes­sor Singh.

This time, Delhi Tech­no­log­i­cal Uni­ver­sity has in­creased seats in com­puter en­gi­neer­ing from 140 to 360 and in in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy from 90 to 120.